Landschap met ceders c. 1842 - 1850

Alexandre Calame created "Landschap met ceders," or "Landscape with Cedars," an undated artwork, using lithography. Calame was Swiss, and he made this work during a period when artists explored national identity through landscape. This neutral-toned print shows a landscape where nature dominates, a sharp contrast to the growing industrialization of Europe. But who has access to this untouched nature? The romanticized view often obscures the labor and the people who work the land. Whose stories are left out of these idyllic scenes? Calame’s work invites us to reflect on our relationship with nature and how it intertwines with our understanding of self and place. He shows a romanticized view of the natural world, but it omits the realities of class and labor. What does it mean to find beauty in a landscape marked by social and economic divides?